Sunday, June 25, 2006

I know that I don't even know how to write yet (I can't even talk, although I do a great babble!), but I still found it interesting that an "A" high school paper is a "C" college paper. Along with having my finances in order, I'll also make sure to work on my writing...

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

If you haven't consolidated your Federal student loans yet, time to get off your diaper (okay, most of you reading aren't still in diapers, but you know what I mean) and get it taken care of. If you have procrastinated this long, it's becasue you think its a hassle, but that hassle will save you a few thousand dollars in interest charges and maybe a lot more - your deadline for getting it done is July 1.

President Bush has also made it a bit easier for you to do so. The old law stated that you has to consolidate your federal student loans with the same entitiy where you received your original student loan and it was a pain for some to try and figure out where that was. As part of an emergency spending bill signed recently by President Bush, Federal student loans can be consolidated with any lender meaning you have one less excuse to get this taken care of right away..

For example, Stafford loans will rise to 7.1% from the current 5.375%. Borrowers who consolidate loans they're already repaying can lock in this rate if they do so before July 1. For those that happen to be in their "grace period" (the six-month window between graduation and when they're required to start making payments on their student loans), they can lock in an interest rate of 4.75%.

There are only a couple of weeks left, so put it on your calendar to get the process to consolidate those loans moving today.

Friday, June 16, 2006

According to the College Board, which reports annually on changes in student aid and college costs, aid has actually been growing – a lot! By the Board’s numbers, between the 1994-95 and 2004-05 academic years, total inflation-adjusted federal student aid more than doubled, from $44.5 billion to $90.1 billion.

And that growth wasn’t only in loans, as student advocates often complain. Real Pell Grant funding rose from $7 billion to $13.1 billion, supplemental grants increased from $743 million to $771 million, work-study rose from $965 million to $1.2 billion, and federal tax benefits increased from nothing to more than $8 billion.

In fairness, just because total federal aid grew doesn’t necessarily mean that aid per-student rose. Maybe State PIRG members and twenty-something agitators still have a legitimate point. Or maybe not: Again, according to College Board data, between 1994-95 and 2004-05 inflation-adjusted grant aid per student from both federal and other sources ballooned 51 percent, from $2,965 to $4,479, and overall aid rose 61 percent, from $6,261 to $10,119.

Moreover, both grant and overall aid increases outpaced the growth in college costs.

Whether student aid is shrinking or increasing, a lot of that aid is in the form of student loans which need to be repaid at some point in the future. That is why I'm getting these finances in order early so that I don't have to worry about the situation in either case - I hope that many of you will join me.

I got to see my uncle for the first time in quite awhile. It was good to see him and he and my mom talked a bit about my college finances. It looks like they will be opening a couple more ING accounts with the money made going to my savings fund. That will be great since I earned quite a bit the last time I had an account opened.

My uncle also too some photos of me so that everyone can see how I have grown. It's hard for me to believe I'll be a year old in less than a month.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Okay, it's been awhle since I have posted here, but my uncle is now back in the US and will be visiting me on a regular basis so there will be a lot more frequent updates and photos from now. This is exciting because i have lots of updates to talk about and now that he isn't moving and has settled down a bit, he'll have time to keep everyone up to date on my progress.

I'm looking forward to my first year birthday coming up in July which should help pad my savings a bit more. I als have to update on the profits I've made the last couple of months which I will do soon.

I'm still not talking, but am almost walking (^_^) - I stand myself up really well these days, but still need to balance against things to stay upright if I want to move around. It shouldn't be too much longer before I'm walking around on my own and then I really can get into all kinds of wonderful things.

Now that my uncle is back, I'll also have a much better opportunity to make some move with my college savings and increase my finances since it will be much easier for all of us to talk together. This should be a great improvement for my net worth and get me better prepared for college (since it is now only a bit more than 17 year before I'll be heading off). Good things with lots of information to post in the coming days...